Fiction Commons^™

The Wilted Petal, Mary Alice Kessler

Manuscripts

(First Place, Short Story Division, 1946, Butler Literary Contest)

Edna lifted the wilted wild rose petal from the dusty, little table and looked at it carefully as if it were some lovely, cherished thing. She turned slightly as she heard the uneven step of her father on the porch, and then she smiled slowly.

Poems, Allyn Wood

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(First prize, Butler' Literary Contest, Poetry Division)

Front Matter

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No abstract provided.

Volume 13, Issue 3: Full Issue

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No abstract provided.

Vignettes

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No abstract provided.

A Typical Little Boy, Anne Sellers

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Tumbling from a bright school bus, a tousled-headed boy shoots imaginary bandits as he gallops up the driveway and into the house. He illustrates the typical school boy of eight or nine returning from a day in school.

The Attack, William E. Laycock

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A slight salt spray came over the bow and dampened my face. There was; a fresh breeze and I could see whitecaps on the rolling blue sea. It was the Pacific ocean and I was standing on the bridge of the U. S. S. Bashaw, a submarine of the United States Navy.

How Important Are Grades?, Sam Newlund

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There is no accurate, concrete method of measuring academic achievement. It certainly cannot be done by issuing grades at certain intervals throughout the course of our formal education. This practice, it seems to me, has certain limited values, but its importance is greatly overemphasized by students, and even by instructors.

Ascent Into The Blue, Claris Dake

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No abstract provided.

Compulsory Military Training, Robert Hays

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No abstract provided.

Compulsory Military Training, John L. Walton

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No abstract provided.

Home Again, Laverne Price

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No abstract provided.

Love And Hate, Janet Blatt

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Love and hate are the two most violent, turbulent emotions, known to mankind. Although at first it seems that the two emotions are poles apart, after careful analyzation many outstanding similarities can be found.

The Average American Student, Martha Chevalier

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The average American student is too little concerned with the academic phase of his education. I believe that most American students continue their higher education for one of several reasons: to respect their parent's desire that they go to school; -to continue in that pursuit of hedomism which graduation from high school has temporarily terminated; or in the case of some, to further their knowledge and stimulate their minds.

Birth, John E. Joyce

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In James T. Farrell's memorable novel, A World I Never Made, there is a scene in which Jim O'Neill's wife tells him that she is pregnant. They already have five children and are so poor that they have been forced to ask a relative to raise one of the boys. Jim realizes that this new child will probably know nothing save the misery of poverty and yet he cannot help but feel a certain pride in the fact that he is to be a parent once more. This is typical of fatherhood.

How I Learned To Ride A Horse, Lee M. Honts

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My first day in the corral at Ft. Riley, Kansas, "World's Largest Cavalry Post," was one filled with apprehension and dread. Learning to ride a horse was the objective of each rookie in the troop that day. The animal I was assigned to ride appeared like an elephant in size, with a reverse hump in his back. But that, the drill sergeant informed me, was the saddle!

Maggie And Jiggs, Marilyn Mitchell

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Every daily and weekly newspaper has a section devoted to "comic strip operas." Some people are extremely attached to certain comic strip characters ..They refuse to buy a newspaper which omits a blow by blow description of the daily lives of their particular favorites. Of all the famous comic strip characters now living on inside pages of our great newspapers, two of the best-known and best-loved are Jiggs and his nagging, fault-finding wife, Maggie.

Home Again, Joseph Zimmer

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No abstract provided.

Buddy, A. T. Blocker

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My most unforgetable character is a Polish forced laborer that my platoon picked up near Leipzig, Germany. I was not long in finding out that we had quite a character on our hands.

First of all, I had better tell you how we acquired "Buddy," as our friend came to be known. Who gave him the name, I don't know, but he seemed to respond to it so well, we let it stick.

A Trap, C. W. Bockstahler

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Just after I was discharged from the Army, my parents and other people often asked me what I disliked most about the Army. Was it the regimentation, the food, the officers, - what was my pet peeve? My reply has been very consistent: the pockets on Army fatigue pants.

Are We Worthy Leaders?, William T. Sharp

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Today as never before America stands as the champion of democracy. Again we have successfully defended our democratic ideals against the forces of oppression. Not only have we protected them for ourselves, but it is now our aim to spread this freedom to the less fortunate people of the world who have never enjoyed it before. Our ancestors drenched this land of ours with their own blood in order that we might be a free nation. Now it is our noble purpose to make this freedom universal.

Before we set ourselves up as an example, let us look over our …

My Most Enlightening Teacher, R. W. Conerty

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My profound apologies go to all my academic teachers of the past, because of all the men and women who have earnestly endeavored to help enrich my meagre store of knowledge, none could I classify as enlightening as when I first went away from home and met the wisest teacher of all I'd met, namely, life.

Annie, Elsie Stefan

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"Ya'd goods on the fo'th floor please. 'ello? No, I'm sorry, we 'aven't any gingham today." On learning that L. S. Ayres' has no gingham, you put the receiver down, but your curiousity still is not quite satisfied. For that melodious, half exotic voice on the telephone leaves you wondering and puzzled as to its origin, and you resolve to satisfy your curiousity the next time you visit the yard goods department. There, answering the telephone and working in the inspection desk, you will find Annie Crich.

Reunion, Janice Skinner

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It was a typical college reunion. The class of '31 was packed into alcoholic layers around the smoke crowned bar. The smell of good bourbon was filtered with laughter and blended with those odors women buy at from two to twenty dollars a dram. Typical.

Daisy Wings, James L. Adams

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No abstract provided.

A Half-Spread Wing, Allyn Wood

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Sunday. Breakfast and lunch eaten; a magazine read; the apartment tidied, as a man alone does it, with deliberate delicacy. There is something exotic in his movement, and about the room, which is produced by the placing of ordinary things; and everywhere is evidence of a long and careful striving for homeyness as a spiritual ideal. Where eyes have met the lonely space of walls, pictures hang - but do not look at them: he seldom does. Squares and rectangles become companionable, and being so familiar, are scarcely seen, their purpose forgotten. So that when he desires space, with an …

Truth And Dare, Barbara Gene Lucas

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The June sun beat steadily down upon the gravel school yard as the children ran out to play for the last time before vacation. The little girls with their hair flying dashed helter-skelter over the playground, and the boys brought out their baseballs. On one side of the yard in the shade of the library building stood a row of ten-year-old girls. They were members of "The Gang," an elite club composed of Republicans only and those who could stand to have their thumb bent backwards without flinching. In front of this rank stood the leader with her hands on …

The Spoon, Mary Alice Kessler

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Mary closed the big wooden door carefully and waited for the click that locked it. She walked slowly across the gravel schoolyard, kicking the largest rocks with her foot. She counted each step ... one ... two ... three ... four. On fifty, she climbed over the low iron fence surrounding the yard and stood quietly as if she were listening for something.

The Woman And The Working Girl, Jean Farson

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Brynn hurried along the sidewalk. She could hardly see through the slippery, foggy shadowy her way air that enveloped East Barnes Street. A fine rain still came down in a slow monotone, and nothing in the city of Wellington seemed to be dry at all. Brynn cast a glance at her watch, and quickened her steps, her green transparent raincoat crackling, as she hurried to catch the eleven o'clock bus. Mr. Dwyer shouldn't have kept her working so late on a night like this--

Sea Song, Jan Skinner

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The boy should have been hurrying home from school. The sky was dark with that peculiar greyness that foretells a storm, but the boy, tall and lank, was ambling along the sidewalk, looking up at the moody skies eagerly, expectantly, as if he was about to see a friend.